Here's another beauty using one of the new high efficiency
Cree XR-E LEDs. This is the HuntLight FT-01XSE. It is
available with two different reflectors, one smooth
for great throw, and one textured for a smooth beam.
It is able to use 123A cells or 18650 rechargeable Li-Ion
cells for power and sports 7 different lighting modes:
5 levels of dimming and both SOS and Strobe modes. Note
that there are several versions/models of this light;
please see "Model Number Mayhem!"
way below for an explanation.

Body: The body is made of thick machined aluminum
with a hard anodize (type III) coating for serious durability.
On the side is a black finish clip held on with two
very unique screws with a triangular head. I've never
seen these before and so I don't know if you can get
a driver bit to remove the clip or not. There are three
rings of checkering on the light. One is around the
base of the head, one around the center of the body,
and one around the tailcap. The mild checkering doesn't
help all that much with grip by itself, but the multiple
steps and flanges on the body tube allow for a good
grip. The light can be fully disassembled. It is not
glued or locktite'd at any of the screw-thread joints.
Machining fit and finish is very good.

Bezel/Head: The front of the light head has
a scalloped design for two purposes. First it serves
to allow light to seep out if you place it down face
first while on, thereby reminding you that you are burning
up your batteries, and second the raised teeth could
serve as an impromptu striking surface in a self-defense
situation.

Smooth reflector left, textured on right

A lens window protects the reflector and
Cree XR-E LED inside. The front of the head can be removed,
exposing the reflector. The reflector can then be removed
and replaced. There are two reflectors for the light
- one smooth for greater throw, one textured for a smoother
beam and wider hotspot for closer-range applications.
Both reflectors are made of aluminum with a highly polished
coating inside. Be aware that an O-ring fits in the
base of the reflector module and needs to be in place
for proper alignment. It is the smaller of the spare
O-rings included with the light.

Output: The white light produced by the LED
appears ever so slightly purplish relative to direct
sunlight, but you'll never notice it in actual use.
In a dark room it appears pure white.

By my estimates it is producing about 139 lumens on
the High setting, which means it outclasses both the
P60 and the brighter P61 incandescent modules used in
many Surefire 2x123A lights in terms of lumens output.
It also beats them in runtime. It runs for about 1.5
hours regulated with two 123A cells while the P60 runs
for about an hour with declining output, and the P61
only runs 20 minutes. By the way, the Low setting with
123A cells produces about 13.9 lumens. See this
page about how I calculated these lumen estimates.

With 123A cells, output is regulated until the batteries
can no longer supply enough current. It can also use
18650 rechargeable 3.7V Lithium-Ion cells (commonly
known as the Pila 600P) to produce diminishing output
over time, but longer runtimes.

Dimming is achieved with the use of a Pulse Width Modulation
(PWM) circuit. The PWM circuit fools your eyes into
thinking the light is being dimmed by strobing the light
faster than your eyes can normally detect. (This works
as a result of a perceptual feature of our brain called
"persistence of vision".) Move the flashlight,
or your eyes, rapidly and the illusion is shattered.
The flicker becomes quite evident and may be especially
noticeable when reading in the dark. This can be very
annoying to some people, especially at slower flicker
rates. Other people, it seems, are not bothered by it
at all. The benefit of using a PWM circuit for dimming
is that the battery life, and therefore runtime, is
extended since the LED is actually "off" and
not using power some of the time while it is in one
of the PWM controlled dim modes.

Please don't ask; I'm not going to take readings for
all reflector and output level and battery combinations.
That would be easily 60 separate readings. Here are
123A and 18650 highest (level 5) and lowest (level 1)
readings. 123A readings were completed with new Titanium
123A cells. 18650 readings were completed with Pila
600P 18650 cells.

All throw readings are in Lux
at one meter. The numbers in parenthesis are for comparison
in the Comparison
Charts.

"Cool Mousover Beamshot Picture"
Beam at one meter at target center with the Smooth reflector
Put mouse on top of image to compare against the beam
from the Textured reflector

Runtime Plot: All of the runtime data is courtesy
of, and used with permission from, Roger H. (a.k.a.
Chevrofreak on CPF). Thanks, Roger, for allowing the
use of your work (it saved me a huge amount of time
and effort, for sure)! He completed runtimes with Energizer
123A cells, an 18650 lithium-ion cell, and two 750mAh
rechargeable 123A cells.

Switch: The switch is reverse clickie that works
in conjunction with the internal circuitry to allow
the user to move through the 7 lighting modes. Click
on for High, then half-press until the light extinguishes
(don't click) and release to move to each of the other
modes in series. A full click of the switch turns it
off. Leaving the light off (from either a half-press
or full click) for more than 2 seconds restarts the
sequence at High. Anything less than 2 seconds moves
you to the next mode. the rubber switch cover does protrude
beyond the tailcap ridge just enough to prevent the
light from standing on end.

Seals / Water Resistance: O-rings protect the
light at all potential points of water entry. Dunkable
at the least.

If it gets wet inside, just disassemble as much a possible
without tools and let it dry before using again.

Ergonomics: It's about the same size as most
2x123A cell lights, so no surprises here.

Size compared to a common 2AA aluminum light

Batteries: Two 123A cells power the light. I
would recommend Titanium
brand cells for $1.00 each (here's
a review) or BatteryStation
or Surefire
brand cells for less than $2 each. I would not recommend
purchasing these cells at retail stores since they cost
$10 a pair or more in most retail stores! Be aware that
there are some inherent
risks in using lights powered by multiple 123A cells,
so take appropriate precautions. Insert the batteries
positive first. POSITIVE always goes toward the head
of the light.

Don't be surprised when your normal 123A cells have
some extra room around them when you put them in. A
single 18650 rechargeable (Pila
600P) Lithium Ion cell can also power the light,
and so the barrel of the light is cut extra wide inside
so that this type of battery can be used.

To change out the batteries: unscrew the tailcap, drop
out the old cells, place in new cells observing proper
polarity. Reattach the tailcap and you're ready to go.

Accessories: The sample received includes 5
spare O-rings and a textured reflector (smooth was installed).

Conclusions: A super light overall!
Great throw and output, great beam, easily changeable
reflectors. Is was only a matter of time before emerging
LED technology put "high power incandescents"
to shame, and the FT-01XE is a case-in-point. The reflector
does a very good job of working with the LED to produce
a very usable and functional beam. The multiple output
functions provide excellent battery life and long runtimes.
I'm impressed, and I think you will be too.

I can't keep track of the model numbers
that Huntlight has for the various versions of this
light, so I'll let Roger H. (of the runtime graphs fame)
explain it for us:

Huntlight actually has quite a few different models
of the FT01 and they have different letters frollowing
the model name of "FT01".

The FT01PJ was the second version, which made the
light brighter and allowed it to run on the higher
voltage of 2 RCR123's.

They then brought out a hard anodized version with
the "natural" colored anodize that had a
U bin LuxIII in it. That one was called the FT01XSE.

There is also now a T bin version of the FT01XSE
that is less expensive. They are also now making a
black hard anodized version of the FT01 XR-E light
and it still has the FT01XSE model name.

Huntlight is using the letters PJ on their type 2
anodized lights, and XSE on their Type 3 hard anodized
lights, regardless of color. They are also using the
same bodies for the new XR-E lights, so the PJ and
XSE are unchanged.

I just thought I would point this out, since there
are actually 2 Luxeon FT01XSE's as well as the new
FT01XSE with the Cree XR-E in it.

Maybe you could call it the FT01XSE XR-E or FT01XSE
Cree. Personally I leave the PJ and XSE off when refering
to it and just call it the FT01 XR-E since at this
point all of the XR-E lights use the same circuit
and LED, just a different type and color of anodize.